- Russia And US Airstrikes Caused Mass Civilian Deaths In #Syria, Says #UN

- UN War crimes investigators said on Tuesday that Airstrikes by Russia and a US-Led coalition killed civilians in #Syria on a large scale last year, while the #ِAssad regime carried out unlawful chemical weapon attacks in Syrian opposition held areas in eastern Ghouta.

Islamic State ISIS militant group fighters and other insurgent groups committed war crimes including deadly attacks on civilians and using them as human shields, the investigators said in their latest report covering six months through January 15.

Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that it came at a “very dark moment in this conflict” as fighting intensifies in Idleb, Afrin and Ghouta.

But the panel was “not a tribunal” and had no powers to take its investigations further, he told a news conference.

During the period, “victims of the Syrian conflict have suffered greatly as violence countrywide re-escalated to new heights,” the report said.

“ #Assad forces continued to use chemical weapons against armed group fighters in eastern Ghouta,” it said.

Source: Reuters